Open access articles in hybrid journals attract more downloads, citations, and attention compared to those published behind a paywall.
In partnership with Digital Science, we analysed a global sample of over 70,000 articles published in Springer Nature hybrid journals. Our new white paper, Assessing the open access effect for hybrid journals, examines the relationship between open access (OA) and impact, demonstrating the wider value hybrid journals bring to researchers, funders, institutions, and society more broadly.
The global analysis showed that:
- On average, OA articles were downloaded 1.6 times more by users based at academic institutions and 4 times more by users overall, compared to non-OA articles.
- OA articles attracted an average of 1.6 times more citations.
- OA articles attracted an average of 2.4 times more Altmetric attention, with 1.9 times more news mentions than non-OA articles.